10 | Sight&Sound | November 2019
RUSHES
- Moss Mabry’s costume designs for Tate’s character Freya in the film 3. Bruce Lee with Tate
- Sharon Tate on the set of The Wrecking Crew
By Isabel Stevens
Images discovered in the BFI’s archive offer a
glimpse behind the scenes of The Wrecking Crew
(1968) – the Dean Martin spy caper that was one
of Sharon Tate’s last films and which features in
Tarantino’s Once upon a Time... in Hollywood. In
one of the most charming scenes in Tarantino’s
ode to the dream factory, Margot Robbie’s Tate
watches herself in The Wrecking Crew on the
big screen, delighted as her accident-prone spy
Freya makes the audience around her laugh. Like
that scene, these archive images show Tate as a
versatile actor rather than just a victim of tragedy.
- Throughout The Wrecking Crew, Tate exhibits
a never-ending wardrobe, from baby-doll
negligées to glamorous, fully accessorised
stripy trouser suits worthy of any spy posing
as a bumbling Danish tourist guide. The film
clearly trades on Tate’s status as a 1960s style
icon. It is a silly romp, but Tate brings energy
and expert comic timing, as well as her beauty.
- The costume designer Moss Mabry, responsible
for the red jacket worn by James Dean in Rebel
Without a Cause (1955), sketched all the costumes
for the film. Meanwhile, in Tarantino’s film, Robbie
wore real pieces of Tate’s jewellery and clothing.
- Once upon a Time... in Hollywood imagines a fight
between martial arts icon Bruce Lee and Brad
Pitt’s stuntman Cliff. Lee actually worked with
Tate behind the scenes on The Wrecking Crew as
a karate adviser. In Mitoshi Uyehara’s biography,
Lee slams Dean Martin as “lazy and clumsy”, but
says Tate and co-star Nancy Kwan (who share a
showdown in the film) were “doing sidekicks
pretty good with just a minimum of teaching”.
During an on-set interview, Tate said, “I broke a
heavy board with my foot. I’m going to put one
of the pictures of that scene up at home, to show
Roman [Polanski] so he’ll be afraid of me.”
TATE GALLERY
A selection of unseen archive
photos of Sharon Tate reveal the
star behind the legend seen in
Once upon a Time... in Hollywood
THE PICTURES
ALL IMAGES: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE
A RT
PRODUCTION
CLIENT
SUBS
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VERSION
Rushes, 5
